Let me start by saying my old ARB fridge has been great, really excellent in fact. I have personally used it on numerous short trips, camping weekends and major overland journeys. This fridge saw temperatures in my truck reach 125 degrees in the middle of the Sahara and still it kept on working. It is dented, scratched and dirty but it still cools like the day it was new.

The new ARB Fridge Freezer arrived at my door several months ago and I have now had the opportunity to throughly test it on several occasions and it performs exactly as advertised. The design has been greatly improved over my older model in several key ways. The most important is without a doubt the hinge system. The old model has one of the quirkiest hinges and latch systems in existence. I can not even begin to count the hundreds, probably the thousands, of fumbles, mis-closures and general colorful metaphor moments we had monkeying around with the fridge while bumping about Africa. More often than not the lid would slide off or become dislodged from the hinges in the rear. The new model has stainless steel detent hinges that allows the lid to be easily and securely slid into position. What makes it even better is the large cam lock latch on the front that insures a positive seal between the lid and cabinet for optimum cooling efficiency.

The new model also features an easy to read digital display, an led light to see your food in the cabinet and a fair helping of injection molded plastic to give it a rugged look and weather the bumping and jostling that usually occurs in the back of my truck.

The new unit features a German built Danfoss compressor and because of the space savings of these mechanicals and an integrated evaporator the fridge capacity is 47 litres compared to the 40 of the older model.

Some of the cool things that were incorporated into this new design are: a separate compartment for fruit and dairy, a magnetic switch that turns the light on, a drain plug in the bottom that makes cleaning MUCH easier, and a hinge that opens past 90°, ensuring that you don’t need to hold the lid up while removing contents from the fridge. The unit operates on 12/24DC and 100~240V AC power and includes an integrated battery protection system that allows users to select the minimum operating voltage for the fridge to prevent excessive discharge of the vehicle battery.